Let's continue our journey through the traditional music of Benin Albarika Store label. This number 64 of Boureima Houezenou presents the Kpalongo rhythm. Some say that this rhythm was born in Ghana during the 70s and the other that it came from Benin. Regardless this music is dynamic and hypnotic. The voices are dense and punctuated by the Gangan drum which indicates the Yoruba influense of this rhythm. This recording is from 1985 and the sound quality is quite good. By the way, I am trying a new Marantz turntableand the sound should also be at the rendez-vous...

King Meissa N'Gom is a Senegalese salsero. His father was a very famous politician. His brothers and sisters have done great studies like him who went to the "Ecole Normale Supérieur" (Superior High School). But his love for music made him become the black sheep of his family. He began his career during the end of sixties and recorded several Afro-Cuban titles sung in Spanish. In 1975, he went to Benin where he had to play at the Appolo club, a legendary live music club in West Africa. He had to stay three days in Cotonou, he will stay three years and become a real star, playing with Danialou Sagbohan's band, the Djiki band, and recording few tracks. Then he left Benin for Mexico where he remained ten years, singing salsa in a hôtel.

Because of his father who did not want him to become a musician, King N'Gom went to Ivory Coast where he recorded his first tracks in 1970 on Djima Records label. On the first record, he sings the inevitable "Guantanamera" and the title "Fatema", a guaguanco that I really like.

On the second Djima record, he sings a son ("Param Pam Pam") and guaracha ("M'Bakham Diop") with still a hard understanding spanish. But his voice and particulary the flute make us forget the language.

Thirty years after the Appollo club, King N'gom is invited in Cotonou, by the owner of the club, to play with Danialou Sagbohan for the wedding of his only daughter. Backed by the Black Santiago, this live recording was unforgetable. Sagbohan is playing kettledrum and King N'Gom 's voice is better than ever. They play "El Manicero" and "El Salsero de Brazzaville", afro-latin songs that King had not sang for 15 years. Enjoy this great bonus...

Here is an album quite difficult to find composed by Joseph "Vicky" Amenoudji, one of the four singers of Poly-Rythmo (who sings in Mina, language from the ouest region of Benin) and also percussionist. This album was released in 1978 on Satel label.

Once again, i have no informations about Isaac Dossou, aka Doslak, author and singer from Benin who made himself known with Poly-Rythmo. But we all know Chief Ebenezer Obey and His International Brothers band, formed in 1964.

This EP from Decca label, recorded in 1971, reveals the close ties between Benin and Nigeria for ages. The language of Benin and Nigerian music are obviously feeting together. The two highlife tunes treat of the politic aspirations from this period: "Liberation" and "Fraternité".

Dolf Motz from Makossa Original blog speculated the this album would be from Stephen Osadebe's son: Obiajulum Osadebe. Music truely sounds like Osadebe's but I am not sure because Obiajulum was born in 1966 and this record has probably been released in the late 70s. A little young, so, for this second volume. Also, the discography of Obiajulum Osadebe began in 1990. The enigma persists so if you have some informations, please let us know.

It is always natural to post Alokpon, king of traditional rhythm Tchinkoume after the king of the Tchink System, Tohon Stan. This album is special because of the of recording's quality and the nearly mint shape of the vinyl. You'll collect the heavy and deep sound of the Gotta percussion. A disc of great value.

Anatole Houdeffo:

First farmer of yams and cassava, and first producer of palm wine in the region of Savalou (center)

King Alokpon:

First traditional musician from Benin with, to his credits, over 60 albums distibuted since 1969.

These two characters are actually the same man. From the Mahi people, Alokpon is a villager (in the noble sense of the word), who divides his time between the love of the earth and the Tchinkoume rhythm. According to the legend this rhythm would come from Abomey, but the scarcity of clay around Savalou prevented the production of good percussions, so the gourd or Gotta was chosen. This giant hollow gourd produces a bass sound which all the 23 musicians and dancers stall on.

Stanislas Tohon is definitely the king of Tchink System (modernized Tchinkoume rhythm) with its famous Gotta drum and water percussions. Tohon is singular as his music. He is like a thug.

He delivers on this album a third version of "Yallow", a hit that mede him known throughout Africa (you can find the original recording in this post). I especially like the track "Gotta" and the violence of all the drums.

El Jowania, whose real name is Joel Lawani, is originally from Porto-Novo. He began his salsero career in 1969 with famous backing bands like Black Santiago, Los Commandos and Les Volcans. In 1977, he released his first album Akpe, which means "thank you" in Mina language (Akpè to Gnonnas Pedro who produced him). El Jowania released his sixth album in 2007 and more alive than ever...

The album Yena Vio that Oro presents is from the early 80s and it is marked with Fender iron red electric organ. Beautiful sound. It has been recorded in Togo and published by an obscure label, International HKD

Orchestra Super Borgou from Parakou was the most famous band in northern Benin during the 70s. Parakou is the largest city in eastern Benin and capital of the Borgou Department. Super Borgou recorded at least four EP's on Albarika Store label. This number 219 has apparently been recorded in 1973-74 since title "Dahomey Libéré" si already praising the Dahomey revolution of 1972. Ce record presents two very nice soukous influense titles. The interview with the Super Borgou's lead guitar Moussa Mama, who composed "Dahomey Libéré", made by Samy Ben Redjab tells perfectly the history of the band (Itw taken from the album Analog Africa N°3: "African Scream Contest):

I was born in 1947; I don’t know the exact date but it was on a Friday, which is why people know me as Moussa “Djima” (Djima is Arabic for Friday). I grew up just watching all those musical things happening around me and I could literally feel music entering my soul. In my early teens, electric guitars started to appear in Parakou, especially during festivities: weddings, circumcision rituals, etc. The first guitarist to perform at our house was Waidy, my brother discovered him in Togo. He would entertain the folks for the whole period of Ramadan. Waidy would sleep end eat at our house, end I watched him practice every day. Then we found another guitarist in Ouidah named Aaron; he was cheaper. We did that for few years until around ’62-63. Throughout those years I never took lessons; I just watched those guys play and tried to copy them on a guitar I built using fishing line and some other tools. In ’63 for some reason we didn’t manage to find a musician to entertain the town, and Ramadan was approaching rapidly. The elders were panicking. I told them not to worry – I would play. They wondered, “When did you learn to play?”, “I will play!” I replied. On the first evening of Ramadan it happened. I performed using just two strings. The next morning people came to see my father to ask him if I was a genius or possessed by evil spirits. Soon youngsters started knocking on my door asking for guitar lessons. They would stay here for two, sometimes three months. We would discuss the price for accommodation, food and beverage. Most of my students used to pay with rice or meat; the ones who had money would pay 50.000 CFA for one month and 100.000 CFA for three months. That’s how I used to earn my living. My first band at that time was named Alafia Jazz. We covered Rumba songs by Franco – that’s where I got the artist name Mama Franco from. I changed the name of the band to OK Jazz later in ’64. A few years later we started to develop our own musical identity based on traditional rhythms and songs from the region. At some point I started thinking, We are the best band from northern Benin singing in Dindi and Bareba, but we have a Congolese name – not good! I decided to choose a name that would show our origins, so we renamed the band Super Borgou de Parakou. Ousman Amoussa handled backing vocal and gon, Sidi Alassane was on the toumba and kit drum, Sidi Seidou played traditional percussions, Soulaima Karim sang lead, Mama Biogado played the bass, Menou Roch was our rhythm guitarist and I was on lead guitar and vocals. We started touring Niger in ’69. We found a job at a bar called Congolaise; the owner was a former Guinena military man who disagreed with the politics of Sékou Touré and had fled the country with his Vietnamenese wife. They were a very sweet couple, so we dedicated this song to them. All the money we managed to earn working in Niamey was invested into better equipment, amps, guitars and other stuff. One day I remember entering a music shop to buy a flute back in ’71 when I heard someone playing an instrument I had never even seen before. The sound was absolutely gorgeous. I asked the seller what kind of instrument that is, to which he replied, “It’s an organ“. I asked for the price. He told me 140.000 CFA. We had saved 300.000 CFA, so I bought that organ on the spot. That was on a Monday; by Saturday I played the whole set using it. It took me a day or two to understand it, but it wasn’t really a problem. On the third or so day I used our new acquisition to compose a hugely successful Afrobeat song called Da Doga Bouyo Inin Be. The first musical competition we did was in ’72 in Cotonou At that time the government would choose one band from each state. Poly-Rythmo, Echos du Zou and many others were all competing. We won and consequently were invited to the International Music Festival in Berlin, Germany.